Cushioned swivel glide



Aug. 26, 1958 H. THoRNsBURY CUSHIQNED SWIVEL SLIDE Filed Aug. 13, 1956 United States Patent O CUSHIONED swIvEL GLIDE Harry Thornsbury, Augusta, Ky., assigner to The F. A.

Nelder Companv Augusta, Ky., a corporation of Kentucky Application August 13, 1956, Seal No. 603,732

1 Claim. (Cl. IES-42) This invention relates to a cushioned swivel glide for furniture legs, and the like.

Heretofore in the cushioned swivel glide art, glide shoe units have been produced with apertured top plates which engage the upper portion of a leg mounted swivel head, such top plates being deformable with respect to a case hardened ybase member to form a glide shoe unit permanently swivelled on the head. Because the top plate must be deformable for assembly purposes it was necessarily constructed of a relatively soft material which was objectionable in the linished glide because when subjected to hard treatment in use the swivel head quite frequently ruptured and broke through the top plate thus severing the shoe unit from the swivel head.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a cushioned swivel glide that has `suicient strength to effectively preclude breakage in use and to thus insure a longer life therefor.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cushioned swivel glide having the foregoing characterist-ics that is simple and rugged in construction.

The full nature of this invention will be understood from the following specification read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, which illustrates the preferred embodiment of said invention.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of my `cushioned swivel glide.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the glide shown in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section taken on line 3 3 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section of the component parts of the shoe unit for my glide before compressing and moving said parts to their cooperative positions.

Referring now in detail to the drawings in which similar reference numerals indicate like parts throughout, 5 designates, generally, my cushioned swivel glide that has a furniture leg anchoring structure 6 for a headed pintle 7 and a glid shoe unit 8 swivelled on said headed pintle.

The anchoring structure 6 comprises a ferrule 9 which snugly receives the hollow lower end portion of the leg of a piece of furniture, or the like, said leg being indicated in Fig. 2 of the drawing by the reference numeral 10. The ferrule has a central aperture 11 formed therein through which is passed a shank portion 12 of the pintle 7. The lower end of the pintle shank portion 12 is formed with an enlarged, round head portion 13 which is spaced from the ferrule by a number of washers 11i- 14, the anchorage structure being completed by a washer 15 interposed between the ferrule and the lower end of the leg, a spacer washer 16 and a sharp pronged washer 17. The anchorage assembly is permanently held together by turning over the upper end of the shank on washer 17 as at 18. The assemblage is forced into the hollow end of the furniture leg to the position indicated in Fig. 3 and it retains the pintle in fixed upstanding position by reason of the fact that the ferrule is held in capped leg position by the downturned sharp prongs 19 of the washer 17 which bite into and grip the internal wall of the leg.

The glide shoe unit 8 comprises a base member 20 made of stijf case hardened metal and provided with a substantially at, floor contacting wall 21 and an upstanding curved side wall 22 which terminates in an inwardly turned upper end edge portion 23. A dished head keeper ring 24, constructed of hard material such as spring steel, has a central aperture 25 formed therein for contacting a small circle of the head above the center of the head, the marginal portion of the ring around the aperture being concaved upwardly for snugly seating the head 13, whilst the main body of the ring ares outwardly and downwardly from the concave head receiving seat. The shoe also has a dome shaped plate 26 made of soft, deformable material, said plate having an enlarged central opening 27 therein that receives the concave seat of the head keeper ring. This plate is provided with an integral downturned lskirt 28 which operatively extends into the confines of the side wall 22of the base member. As best shown in Fig. 3 it is to be noted that the top wall 29 of the plate overlies, and is in face-to-face contact with the head keeper ring and that said top wall is coextensive with the keeper ring whereby all forces tending to pull apart the shoe unit il and the anchoring structure 6 will be effectively resisted by the strong head keeper ring 24 and its large contacting area with the top wall 29 of the soft, deformable plate 26. The marginal edge portion of the top wall 29 of the plate is located beneath and in contact with the terminal end edge portion 23 of the base member, the skirt 2S extending downwardly and outwardly from the contacting parts into the connes of the side wall 22. The lower edge of the skirt is outwardly curved at `3) (Fig. 3) and is in contact with the interior face of the side wall 22 of the base member to clinch the plate and base member together. The interior space bounded by the base member and the dome shaped member is completely filled with a rubber filler 31 that is ccnstantly under substantial compression due to the assemblage of the shoe.

The steps in assembling the glide yshoe 8 will now be described with reference to Fig. 4 so that the construction of the nished glide will be understood. ln said Fig. 4 it will be noted that the rubber filler 31 rests upon the inside face of the base member and that it is lsomewhat higher and not as wide as the rubber mass in the finished glide shown in Fig. 3. Also the skirt 2S is square with the top wall 29 of the dome shaped plate 26. When compression forces are applied on the plate 26 and on the member 20, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3, the rubber ller 31 spreads outwardly and is extended into the connes of the side wall 22. As the lower edge of the skirt 2S aproaches the lower inside face portion of the said side wall, the filler expansion and contact of the skirt with the side wall forces the lower end of the skirt to turn outwardly and upwardly to clinch the plate and member together, the rubber filler having previously entered the confines of the side wall beyond the clinched skirt to provide a cushioned glide that maintains the parts in operative position by compression of the resilient ller.

My construction allows for full swivelling action of the glide shoe in the event the furniture leg is inclined or tilted, but due to the expansive force of the rubber filler on the head, the suppotring action will always be cushioned and will never work loose. It will also be noted that l have provided a glide shoe unit that may be effectively reinforced at the swivel joint to secure a rugged and inexpensive cushioned swivel glide.

What is claimed is:

In a cushioned swivel glide for furniture legs, a cupshaped base member having a curved side wall terminating in an inwardly turned upper end edge portion, a dome shaped plate comprising a top wall With its marginal edge engaged under the upper end edge portion of the base member and an integral skirt extending from ythe marginal edge downwardly and outwardly `into the connes of the curved side Wall of said base member, a pintle having an enlarged, round head formed on its lower end, a central opening formed in the plate, a dished, head keeper ring interposed between the head and the plate and having Ya central aperture for seating against 10 CTI the upper portion of the head, and a filler surrounding the lower portion 0f the head and lling the internal space bounded by the base member and the ning.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS France Aug. 17, 1925 

